Wests roll the students

I went to see old Premiership rivals UWA host West’s this weekend and started with disappointment on arrival. Struggling to see what was on offer by way of lunch, I was told they had beef ‘n gravy rolls. Clearly overpriced and undersized they won’t be competing with Baysie on this front.

Uni started the game facing into a physical presence from the Wests pack and several periods of continued phases were getting into double figures most times. Credit to the Wests pack for retention success but the first forays didn’t produce the points from such possession and territory. UWA’s first eventual possession however, saw a great tactical kick into the Wests 22 and some disciplined structure from the students saw a well worked score for the first one on the board.

This was the first and apparent last disciplined structure the students were allowed given the domination of possession of the West pack, playing a game plan of attrition. Saying that, the rare first half scrums were reasonably even where West would have been expected to dominate, whereas from the lineout just patience by Wests saw possession recovered as Uni struggled in this area for most of the game.

West’s approach of patience and attrition paid dividends on a number of occasions, best demonstrated by their second score with around a dozen phases of pick ‘n go or a simple one off carry with each time gaining just a metre and straight up the middle of the park. This drew the Uni defence into the confrontation, drawing them into attempting higher tackles to match the physicality. A quick bit of handling for the backs on either side then back into the middle and strangely enough gaps appeared for the West half to take on, ably supported by his back row to fall over the line.

This defence drawing paid several dividends as the students’ patience shortened and the inevitable penalties arrived, some kicked to keep the bloke on the scoreboard busy, some scrummed to take advantage of the yellow given heading into the break. West started to pull away and you could see the frustration and almost desperation creeping into UWA plays.

The break at 8 – 17, saw the Wests squad all huddled up, arms linked and the talk given, interestingly Uni came together as a group, split into pack and backs and then re-joined. Yes they would have had more to talk about but the body languages were quite different.

After the break Uni gave it a go trying to climb back into the game, credit to the Uni halves for trying some kind of creativity but when the pressure’s on, there was little time to get into patterns and structures let alone execute them. Defensively they started to target the Wests runners and bring them down to challenge the Wests tactic, a little late in the game but it earned them a few penalties that they made use of territory wise.

Given the stage of the game and the job almost done up front we saw the first real move and line break from the Wests backline and the centre carved up some metres, all for nothing though given the lack of support and the Uni counter that followed but it didn’t stop them trying it again to stretch a defence that had been drawn close for almost a hour.

On the Wests’ side their busy nine was asking questions all game, giving the carriers the pass only after he looked up to draw a defender in, making them think all the time in a constant threat. He knew when to go, when to give it and when to go wide and managed all options well in this game. UWA’s struggle can be based in the lack of set piece possession, if they’re losing on first phase it will never augur well for any other phase. Towards the end both scrums and line outs got fairly messy and a not straight call will always see a few heads drop in a game of Premiership standard. Might be a heavy week at McGillivray this week with a bit to work on, not least those beef ‘n gravy rolls.

2

"The whole point of rugby is that it is, first and foremost, a state of mind, a spirit." - Jean-Pierre Rives